GregInTheWater
GLASGOW OPEN WATER SWIMMING COACH
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It seems like months since I have posted a swim story on this blog, so you probably think that I have been out of the water. Well, no I have continued my swim adventures, and now after the summer of 2017, it is time to get more up to date. I swam through the winter of 2016 in the lochs of Scotland wearing a wetsuit, and yes it was not pleasant,… Read More
The year 2016 in review. I used to do an annual review talking about the 20 or so open water swim events I had competed in. But 2016 was different, because even though I swam in nine events, the highlights were definitely what is called wild swimming in the UK. This involves just getting in the water and swimming: and we are blessed with so many choices here in Scotland. But first… Read More
The weekend after the Great Scottish Swim, it was a trip to the Lakes District in England for the annual Coniston End to End event. This race is one of the more popular events held on Coniston Water over a distance of 5.25 miles (8.5km), from one end of the lake to the other. The lake is famous for the world water speed record attempts (successful and otherwise) held in the 1960s…. Read More
The Great Scottish Swim returned for their annual swim at Balloch on the shores of Loch Lomond on the weekend after the Pier to Pub swim. This year they had introduced a 10km swim event on the Friday afternoon, and I entered during the winter based on the plans to make each lap 2.5km. However, as the event got closer, it became clear that the 10km event would use the standard course,… Read More
Several of my friends from Wild West Swimmers had swam at Glencoe in the summer of 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed it. So when the summer schedule was up, and the swim had avoided a clash with the Great Scottish Swim I thought I would have to do the event. For those of you with knowledge of Scottish history, you will be aware that Glencoe is infamous for a massacre by Clan Campbell… Read More
After the first leg of our swim down Loch Lomond from Ardlui to Tarbet, we returned the following weekend for leg two. This leg would start at Tarbet Pier (where we finished leg one), and finish at Luss, a distance of around 13km. We arranged to meet at Luss with one kayaker and five swimmers being the van man, the rose, the actor, the slow one and myself. The weather forecast was… Read More
Being summer time in Scotland with so many incredible places to swim, we needed a goal. So a group of us came up with the idea of swimming the length of Loch Lomond over three legs. Due to our busy schedules, we had planned to do the first two legs on consecutive weekends in July, and the third leg in September. Of course I had already done the third leg last… Read More
My 100th blog post. When I started this blog it was to record my various ocean swims races or open water swims as they call them in the UK. I just looked at my very first blog, and it talked about places to swim around the world that I might get to. Well I have swum at all of them and more. I started doing open water swim events in my former… Read More
One of the reasons why I went to Croatia was to get lots of swimming under my belt to prepare for my first 10 km swim race. The race was billed as the Highest Open Water Race in the UK, and was down the River Spey in the Scottish Highlands. Those of you with knowledge of whisky will know that this River is the source for a large number of producers of… Read More
The glorious weather continued after the Bardowie race, with sun from dawn to dusk for two weeks. At this time of year dawn is around 430am, with sunset about 10pm, and then the long twilight takes over, with complete darkness a mere dream of colder days. The local media were talking about the heat wave as the maximum temperature sat above 20c for days on days. Memories of the stunning summer of… Read More
GregInTheWater 